Born in Pyongyang, South Pyongyang Province, Joseon during the Japanese colonial period (Currently Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea) | Died in Seoul, Republic of Korea

일제시대 조선 평양남도 평양부 출생(현재 조선민주주의인민공화국 평양직할시) | 한국 서울 사망

무제 Untitled
1989, 종이에 마커, 유채 Marker and oil on paper, 9.4x6.9inch, 개인 소장 Private Collection

Hong was born in Pyongyang to a devout Christian family. His father was an elder of the nearby village Methodist Church, and his maternal grandfather was a pastor. He entered the Imperial Japanese Art School in 1942 at the height of the Pacific War. But soon after, ‘student conscription’ began. He received military training and physical examination, and joined the Imperial Japanese Army.

Upon Korea's liberation from Japan, he returned to Pyongyang, but the Korean War broke out. On October 18, South Korean and U.N. forces took Pyongyang, but before long had to retreat because of Chinese intervention. Hong came down to the South following the retreating forces on December 4, 1950.

When he left Pyongyang, the only family he could bring was his wife, and baby girl and boy. All his life, he had to live with the pain of separation from his old parents and his five-year-old eldest daughter in the North, who he couldn't take care of while evacuating in a hurry.

He said he was greatly inspired by the ancient tombs of Gangseo, which he saw as a child near his hometown Pyongyang. He expressed his affection for his hometown, which cannot be returned to, with faintly rising outlines in the dark brown Matière of the murals of Gangseo Tombs. It could be his eldest daughter's appearance or a bird wanting to fly to his hometown. It also could be a primitive image of the hometown that he missed but could not return to forever, or a 'paradise lost' and a 'paradise regained' at the same time.

홍종명은 평양에서 독실한 기독교 집안에서 태어났다. 아버지는 인근 마을 감리교회 장로였으며 외할아버지는 목사였다. 그는 태평양 전쟁이 한창이던 1942년 일본제국미술학교에 입학했지만, 곧 ‘학생출진’이 시작되어 군사훈련과 징병검사를 받고 일본제국군에 입대했다.

해방이 되자 귀국하여 평양으로 돌아왔지만, 곧 6.25 전쟁이 발발했다. 10월 18일 국군과 유엔군이 평양에 입성했다. 홍종명은 1950년 12월 4일 후퇴 행렬을 따라 남으로 내려왔다.

평양을 떠날 때 그가 데리고 올 수 있었던 가족은 아내와 두 아기남매뿐이었다. 황급히 피난길에 오르는 바람에 그는 5세의 맏딸 순회를 미처 챙기지 못했고 북녘의 노부모와 장녀와의 이별을 평생 동안 통절하게 느끼며 살아야 했다

평양이 고향인 그는 어릴 적 보았던 강서고분에 큰 영감을 받았다고 한다. 홍종명은 돌아갈 수 없는 고향에 대한 애틋한 심정을 강서고분 벽화의 짙은 갈색 마티에르 속 희미하게 떠오르는 윤곽선으로 표현했다. 그것은 어린 딸의 모습이거나 고향으로 날아가고픈 새일 수도 있고, 그리워하면서도 영원히 돌아갈 수 없는 원초적 고향의 이미지일 수도 있고, '실낙원'이면서도 '복낙원'일 수도 있는 가능성으로 열려 있다.

홍종명 Hong Jong-myoung, 1922-2004